HEDD HEDDPhone Review (headphone)

[Robbo99999]

It was interesting to see this review in as much as it is a headphone that has a driver that's been pulled from a speaker, where it was functioning as a tweeter. Paradoxically (on the surface) this resulted in good bass performance but fairly bad treble performance in terms of distortion and frequency response. It sure is an expensive headphone with quite a few flaws, there's plenty of other headphones that can offer good bass either before or after EQ, as well as less problem in the treble, so I reckon it's worth looking elsewhere. One recently reviewed headphone in a similar vein with low bass distortion is the HiFiman HE400i but it doesn't have as many problems in the treble (distortion/frequency response) as this headphone, and it's about a tenth of the price.....although praps the soundstage won't be as good as the headphone in this review just judging by Amir's subjective descriptions. My first planar magnetic headphone is due to arrive soon (HE4xx) so I'm looking forward to testing out this low bass distortion, and will be curious on the soundstage. It's comforting to know that we can avoid paying $1800 for the likes of this headphone though!

 

[amirm]

Yes please. Oh, do you need to export it as an .xlsx with the summary page, and not just a .csv of the actual data? It requires importing of new tabs instead of overriding existing data, so instead of importing and being done with it, I need to do an import & copy/paste, not a big deal.

Let me look again to see if there is a choice of export formats.

 

[amirm]

And on Amirm THD test the low frequency distortion never rises (?)

That was puzzling indeed. If I have time I will test again.

 

[amirm]

It looks like that the leather strap has been added by the owner (this Leather Headphone Strap for Improving Wearing Comfort of Hedd Audio Heddphone 1 | eBay ?) , so not stock.

Oh, thanks for pointing that out! I was wondering why I could tolerate it better than others.

 

[Jimbob54]

It was interesting to see this review in as much as it is a headphone that has a driver that's been pulled from a speaker, where it was functioning as a tweeter. Paradoxically (on the surface) this resulted in good bass performance but fairly bad treble performance in terms of distortion and frequency response. It sure is an expensive headphone with quite a few flaws, there's plenty of other headphones that can offer good bass either before or after EQ, as well as less problem in the treble, so I reckon it's worth looking elsewhere. One recently reviewed headphone in a similar vein with low bass distortion is the HiFiman HE400i but it doesn't have as many problems in the treble (distortion/frequency response) as this headphone, and it's about a tenth of the price.....although praps the soundstage won't be as good as the headphone in this review just judging by Amir's subjective descriptions. My first planar magnetic headphone is due to arrive soon (HE4xx) so I'm looking forward to testing out this low bass distortion, and will be curious on the soundstage. It's comforting to know that we can avoid paying $1800 for the likes of this headphone though!

I know it's not really the done thing here, but I would love to know @amirm purely subjective, price not factored and post EQ preference between the Hifiman 400 he tested and this unit.

 

[amirm]

I know it's not really the done thing here, but I would love to know @amirm purely subjective, price not factored and post EQ preference between the Hifiman 400 he tested and this unit.

This one is better post EQ although I am going by memory.

 

[Jimbob54]

This one is better post EQ although I am going by memory.

Cheers. Its down to the individual to determine if that difference is worth $1000 or more.

Also, is the Ether CX going to get the full works?

Happy new year and all that.

 

[Robbo99999]

I know it's not really the done thing here, but I would love to know @amirm purely subjective, price not factored and post EQ preference between the Hifiman 400 he tested and this unit.

This one is better post EQ although I am going by memory.

I'll buy this $1800 headphone then! (no way Jose!) I'll see how it goes with the HE4XX but I think I'll like my K702 more still. Still, there's better headphones out there than this $1800 headphone.

 

[amirm]

Also, is the Ether CX going to get the full works?

It is here. So maybe I do that one next.

 

[infinitesymphony]

So what we need in order to produce the ultimate low-distortion headphone is like the opposite of a coaxial speaker:

An inner AMT for the bass, an outer ring radiator for the treble.

 

[YSC]

I assume here:

This looked wildly different than amirm’s measurements,will it be some sealing issue on the system?

 

[LightninBoy]

What was remarkable was the improvement in soundstage. Without EQ, the response was maybe a bit better than a typical headphone with its center of your head response. With EQ, a larger bubble was created that started at your ears and travelled up 5 or 6 inches with instruments layering separately in that half sphere. This demonstrates that frequency response has a large role in sound stage even though people think this is a distinct phenomena. I think this has to do with the fact that lower frequencies tend to be more in mono and hence when they are exaggerated as they were here without EQ, they stepped on spatial cues in higher frequencies.

I love these little tidbits. I can relate to the experience because my NAD HP50's FR has the same error (relative to the Harman curve) at around 250hz. Addressing that part with EQ made the biggest difference. I also felt the soundstage improved dramatically - without EQ it sounded like almost everything was in the middle of my head. You might be on to something with the theory about boosted mono low frequencies messing with the soundstage.

 

[pozz]

This looked wildly different than amirm’s measurements,will it be some sealing issue on the system?

Smoothing and scaling are very different. More data presentation than differences in data.

 

[the_brunx]

It’s almost become a trend that when a new headphone especially expensive ones are released there seems to be a subjective hype going on about how better it is than every thing else previous. But this review right here is part of the prove that the latest is not always the greatest. and people need to calm down and stop prematurely abandoning their older headphones in excitement everytime a new headphone is released. Headphones seem to not be progressing the same way as DACs or Headphone Amps do over the years. Very interesting new review segment. waiting for more headphones.
Happy new year.

 

[majingotan]

Without EQ, I found the HEDD to sound somewhat bright.

My HRTF is probably out of whack lol. I demoed these a couple of months ago and they're definitely warm sounding to my ears without EQ. Around the same warmness as Focal Clear without EQ. HD800S and Focal Utopia are definitely brighter than HEDD barring EQ.

Surprisingly disappointing measurements. I think these headphones sounded wonderful. If the deep bass they lacked had been able to be successfully equalized they may have even won my subjective comparison. I noted they do something special to the top end - maybe I found the distortion pleasing? I found female vocals especially captivating.

Martin

Edit: Amir's measurements agree well with oratory1990's:

View attachment 102763

I agree. They do sound nice and they're one of my choices to my subjective sound preferences along with HD800S and Utopia. Sub bass is subjective but I don't find them lacking in that department when volume is cranked to 95 - 105 dB SPL with my demo (~3 o'clock position with Headamp GSX-MK2 at high gain)

 

[Maki]

Looks like a headphone for tube amp lovers with all that 2nd harmonic distortion.

 

[vkvedam]

I expected a lot from this headphone
Nevertheless many thanks for the detailed review.

 

[amirm]

My HRTF is probably out of whack lol. I demoed these a couple of months ago and they're definitely warm sounding to my ears without EQ.

The exaggerated bass certainly leaves that warmth impression. On my comment, after EQ I found the highs not be as sizzly as they were before so "bright" was probably too inexact of a descriptor.

 

[vkvedam]

So far it's the Sennheiser HD800S which is in the lead I suppose when it comes to high end offerings

 

[RickSanchez]

While I have no intention of buying these I do appreciate it when manufacturers step up to dispel audiophile myths ...

source: https://www.hedd.audio/wp-content/downloads/HEDDphone-Quickstart.pdf